Cosmic speed limit not exceeded

The latest measurement of the subatomic particles’ speed from the CERN research center in Geneva to Gran Sasso in central Italy contradicts a previous report, which stated that the particles traveled the 729-kilometer distance between Switzerland and Italy 60 nanoseconds faster than the barrier of 299,792 kilometers per second.

Back in September, a group of physicists working at the OPERA experiment (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Racking Apparatus) at Italy’s Gran Sasso Laboratory and CERN, the world’s largest physics lab, which is located near Geneva, astounded the scientific world when they claimed they clocked the neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light.

The new analysis was done by scientists working on a separate experiment called ICARUS. Using independent timing data and measuring seven neutrinos in the beam sent from CERN, they found the time was exactly consistent with what Einstein’s speed limit would allow.

Sandro Centro, an expert in high-energy physics and the spokesman for the ICARUS experiment, said he believed the results of the new tests were conclusive, adding, “The speed of light and speed of neutrinos are the same.”

However, the debate will continue until May, when it is expected that there will be a definitive, final answer on the notion of faster-than-light subatomic particle travel.

Albert Einstein proposed his theory of special relativity in 1905, stating that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

AS/HGL

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